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Gearspedia:Manual of Style
We here at Gearspedia like things to be uniform and everything, so this Manual of Style is here to set things straight. For information on the most basic writing techniques and styles, which are used here, see Wikipedia's Manual of Style. Below are some basic Gears of War formatting do's and don't's. Layout guide In-universe All in-universe articles should be structured as follows: #Title/Eras/Infobox #Main article #Stub #Behind the scenes (notice the capitalization) #Appearances #Sources #Succession box #References #See also #External links #Category #Interwiki links OOU articles on reference works All out-of-universe articles on books, comics, etc. should generally be structured as follows. This list is typically more flexible than main articles. #Title/Eras/Infobox #Introduction #Stub #Editions #Publisher's summary #Plot summary #Excerpts #Appearances #Behind the scenes #Cover gallery #Succession box #Notes and references #See also #External links #Category #Interwiki links List for "Appearances" Use for the list of characters, creatures, etc. under the "Appearances" heading. If an official "Dramatis Personae" is provided, substitute |dramatis personae= and |other characters= for the current |characters= parameter. For additional subsections such as "Languages", use bold-formatted headers under |miscellanea=. See the usage notes on Template:App for more information. Appearances OOU articles about real people Naming articles There are some rules regarding how articles on Gearspedia should be named. The name of the article should be bolded in its first usage in an intro, as should any alternate names mentioned in the intro. These bolded titles should not have links within them. Using the # Do not use the # in a link unless you intend to direct to a section of that article with the title after the # as a section. When linking to articles, particular books and guides with numbers denoting their order, omit the # and simply put the number. Otherwise the software will look for that number as a section title on the page. e.g. Gears of War: Hollow '', not ''Gears of War: Hollow #4 You can use piped links to account for this. For example, ''Gears of War:Hollow Issue 4 would give you ''Gears of War:Hollow'' #4. Perspective In-universe If something is in-universe, or is described as such, it belongs to the Gears of War universe exclusively and not to the real world. Characters, for example, are in-universe, but the actors who play them are out-of-universe. Another example is that the correspondent in-universe term for the English language is Tyran, which is the common language in Gears of War. Pseudohistory is an integral part of in-universe treatment of canon material. The only section where out-of-universe information is appropriate is the "Behind the scenes" section and its subsections of an in-universe article. See below for more details. Out-of-universe Out-of-Universe refers to the perspective in which an article is written; it is the opposite of in-universe. Something written from an out-of-universe (OOU) perspective is written from a real life point of view. It will refer, for example, to real life publications, actors, authors, events, and so on, acknowledging that its subject is fictional. In contrast, an in-universe perspective will strive for verisimilitude; that is, it will be written as though the author existed within the Gears of War universe. Articles about any in-universe things, such as characters, vehicles, terminology, or species, should always be written from an in universe perspective. If a section in the article is not, such as the listing of a character's published appearances or behind the scenes details, it should be tagged as such. In contrast, articles about books, movies, games, or other real-life Gears of War material should obviously be written from an out-of-universe perspective, but should still be noted as such. Basically, in-universe articles should never refer to Gears of War by name, or any other real life things such as publications, actors, or the like. Headings Use the (heading) markup for headings, not the ' ('bold') markup. Example: : This is a heading which produces: :This is a heading If you mark headings this way, a table of contents is automatically generated from the headings in an article. Sections can be automatically numbered for users with that preference set and words within properly marked headings are given greater weight in searches. Headings also help readers by breaking up the text and outlining the article. *Capitalize the first letter only of the first word and of any proper nouns in a heading, and leave all of the other letters in lower case. *Avoid links within headings. *Avoid overuse of sub-headings. Usage and spelling Though the readers and editors of Gearspedia speak many varieties of English, we mandate standard American English spelling, grammar, punctuation, and word usage. This is the variety of English used in the first printings of most primary sources. If a word has two acceptable variants in American English, the one that is considered "more American" is to be used. Such example is the spelling of ''judgement as judgment. The only exception of this rule is the spelling of words ending in ''-ogue'': while dialog is an acceptable version of dialogue, the latter is preferred. If the title of an article differs in different varieties of English, the American title should be the article title, with alternate names being used as redirects. If a source's title is in British English, it must not be converted into American English. Also, if a direct quotation from a British source has a word which is spelled differently in American English, the original British spelling must be preserved. However, a sic sign may be put after the word. Tense All in-universe articles should be in past tense, per the quote above. The reasons for this are twofold. Firstly, the articles on Gearspedia are presented as historical recordings that have been pieced together from scraps of information left over from the Gears of War era. As such, all details pertaining to this history have not yet been uncovered, and more information may be added at a later date. Keeping articles written in past tense provides consistency and flavor. Secondly, the Gears of War universe takes place in the past. Writing in-universe articles in past tense properly relates the timeline of that universe with our own perspective. Despite this, do not include phrases like "his ultimate fate is unknown" or "what happened to the ship after that is a mystery." Capital letters COG and UIR If these adjectives refer to the COG or the UIR, they should always be capitalized. "Sarfuth supported the COG" and "The Union of Independent Republics had a base on Ostri..." However, note that if the referent of these forms are not either of these organizations, there is no reason to capitalize: "The planet Sera was in turmoil by a series of wars and invasions." Human and other sentient species In all sections of in-universe articles, the words "Human" and "Locust" should be capitalized, just as the name of any other sentient species. Please note that semi-sentient or nonsentient creature names must not be in capitals unless dictated otherwise by canon. Hence, writing As much as we don't capitalize "Dog" or "Cat" in real-life, we shouldn't capitalize fictional creature names. Ranks and titles A rank's name is not to be capitalized if it refers to the rank, not a person. "Hoffman was a well-known colonel." or "As a officer, he had many responsibilities." However, if the word refers to a person, it should be in capitals. "As an experienced leader, Colonel Hoffman..." or "He never liked telling jokes to the Colonel." There are some ranks the name of which should always be capitalized, no matter the semantics. Such titles are Cadet, Vice Admiral, Flight Leader, and so on. Italics and miscellaneous grammar Class and ship names Names of specific spaceships should be: *Capitalized *Italicized *Referred to by neutral pronouns (it, its) :e.g. :"The Sovereign was a Raven's Nest Class. Its commanding officer was Commander Fyne." The use of the definite article should follow the most common use for that ship in canonical sources. Class names are italicized only when a spaceship in the class bears the same name. The definite article may be used, but it is not required. *When a ship's class is a modifier, use a hyphen: ::"Raven's Nest Class-class bulk cruiser" *When it is a noun, do not use a hyphen: ::"Ships of the Raven's Nest class were often overlooked" :e.g. :An ''Raven's Nest'-class Star Dreadnought Do not italicize a class name when: *Using the class name and type, but without "-class" ::"CNV Chancellor" *It is being used alone as a noun ::"Most models of the Broadside were lightly armored and ran with a small crew." Helicopters, missile, and other craft types where a specific vehicle does not bear the class name should be *Capitalized *Un-italicized *Preceded by the full technical designation in the first instance, and may be referred to solely by type name or common name in all succeeding instances. *Referred to with neuter pronouns (it) :e.g. :The King Raven. Apostrophes and possessives ending in "s" While plural nouns ending in "s" should be made possessive by adding only an apostrophe, singular nouns ending in "s" can be made possessive by adding either an apostrophe followed by another "s" or simply an apostrophe, providing each article is consistent throughout. Users are encouraged, but not required, to use only an s' for possessive nouns ending in a Z-sound. For example, while discussing the armor of multiple Gears, one would write "Gears' armor"; but while discussing the armor of Marcus Fenix, one could write "Marcus's armor" or "Marcus' armor." Quotations Quotations should follow this general format: *If the quote is less than a paragraph long, simply including it in the article's body with "quotation marks" will suffice. *If the quote is at least a paragraph in length, or a dialogue, insert as a block quote: ::"Block quotes are indented with a colon at the beginning of each new paragraph. Each paragraph needs only one colon, not a new colon for each line (word wrap will accomplish this automatically). ::New paragraphs, however, do require their own colon." Please be sure to provide as much information as possible (for instance: source, page if applicable, and characters speaking if applicable). *Users should not correct the capitalization, spelling, grammar, or word usage within direct quotes taken from copyrighted sources as such modifications jeopardize our Gearspedia:Copyrights claim on that material. Article quotes ought to be verbatim and any changes, edits, or exclusions should be explicitly noted by using square brackets ("[ ]"). Any errors made by the author may be noted by using "sic." This includes words such as Human, which the community has decided to capitalize in all other contexts, and the word sera, which is to be de-capitalized in all other contexts. *However, the community has decided that quotes taken from comics should not mimic emphasized boldfaced wording. Instead, only italics are to be used for emphasis. *Redundant internal links should not be added to quotes because they serve little purpose beyond making the quotes appear cluttered and messy. Links should only be added to quotes if they contain a specific article's ONLY mention of a particular concept, but even then, it is better to integrate the internal link into the body of the article's text. *Piped links should be avoided as much as possible because they appear unprofessional and are generally distracting. If the context of the quote is not readily apparent, it is best to add appropriate information to the quote attribution field of the quote template rather than adding piped links to ambiguous pronouns such as "you," "he," or "they." Per standards of American English, double quotation marks (" ") should be used and the period (full stop), comma, question and exclamation marks should be within the quotation. Single quotation marks (' ') should only be used when there is a quotation inside a quotation: "I never liked fighting 'for the queen.'" A quote used in a Gearspedia article should only include: #Text that is presented within actual quotation marks, or otherwise clearly marked as spoken dialogue. #Text that is clearly presented within the confines of someone's memoirs, journal, or diary. This includes in-universe written works, such as media outlets, news reports, and the like. :A quote is NOT: #Narrative prose that is not actual spoken dialogue or a character's personal memoirs, journal, or diary. This means that thoughts are not considered quotable material. Category:Gearspedia Meta